15/03/2023
EBONYI GUBER POLL: NWIFURU, TECHNICALLY NO LONGER A CANDIDATE BY VIRTUE OF SUPREME COURT VERDICT - APGA CAUTIONS EBONYIANS NOT TO WASTE THEIR VOTES
- (Being a Press release on the forthcoming Governorship election in Ebonyi State by the Odohzia Ebonyi Campaign council)
We at the Odohzia Ebonyi Campaign council with our team of legal experts have reviewed with engrossed interest the recent Supreme Court ruling which sacked Hon. Victor Uzoma Chukwu, the Majority Leader of Ebonyi State House of Assembly as the All Progressives Congress, APC Candidate for Ezza North West State Constituency of Ebonyi State, in this Saturday, March 18, 2023 general election.
Recall that the Apex Court had declared Barr. Leonard Nweke Igboke as the duly nominated House of Assembly Candidate of APC in Ezza North West State Constituency of Ebonyi State. Barr. Leonard Nweke Igboke had won the APC Primary election conducted on 26/5/2022 and was the nominated candidate of APC, but his name was wrongfully omitted in the lists of Candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on 22/7/2022, which led to the case filed at the Federal High Court, Abakaliki on 3/8/2022.
Recall also that the Federal High Court had on 9/12/2022 delivered its judgement, in which it ordered INEC to delete the name of Hon. Victor Uzoma Chukwu from its record and Portal adding that it should enter and publish Barr. Leonard Nweke Igboke and his particulars in its record and portal forthwith.
Not satisfied with the ruling, Hon. Victor Uzoma Chukwu on 26/12/2022 appealed against the decision of the Federal High Court at the Court of Appeal, Enugu.
The Court of Appeal on 25/1/2023 delivered its judgment in favour of Hon. Victor Uzoma Chukwu and set aside the decision of the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, hence the appeal filed at the Supreme Court by Barr. Leonard Nweke Igboke on 9/2/2023 and the Judgment delivered on 9/3/2023 by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court after reviewing the case presented, found and held that the Court of Appeal Enugu did not wholly consider and correctly evaluate the totality of the unchallenged admissible evidence and exhibits presented and tendered at the Federal High Court by Barr. Leonard Nweke Igboke.
The Supreme Court frowned at the way and manner the Court of Appeal misconceived the case, which Igboke had presented before the Court.
Recall that the said suit originated from the defection of 16 Lawmakers in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly alongside the Governor, Engr. David Umahi from the PDP to the APC which the Speaker who now doubles as the APC Governorship candidate in Ebonyi, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru was one of them.
Based on the foregoing and sequel to the fact that it is a class case therefore, we enjoin all Ebonyi voters never to waste their votes on Nwifuru and the APC this Saturday as the Apex Court is certainly to take the same stand having set a loqus classiques in the case of the said Hon. Victor Chukwu Nwite.
They should rather all come out en masse and cast their votes for the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA Governorship candidate, Professor Benard Odoh who has an utterly unblemished record and no single litigation bugging him down. They should also endeavour to protect their votes by following it from their over 2, 490 Polling Units to the 171 Federal Wards and then the 13 Local Government Areas in the State. For that's their only surest route to escaping from the dangers of an APC or any other Party's government and it's barrage of baggages that may make things far worse they have been for the citizens in the past eight years.
Signed:
Charles Otu,
Director, Media and Publicity Odohzhia Ebonyi Campaign council
